Free Discovery Education streaming videos for AL & GA
I was recently contacted by an Alabama homeschool mom who wished to let homeschoolers in Alabama and Georgia know of this great offer! She wrote:
I homeschool in Alabama and recently learned that homeschoolers in Alabama & Georgia can receive, for FREE, the Discovery Education UnitedStreaming videos. Currently, through the end of March, the Homeschool Buyers Co-op is doing a group buy on this product. The annual subscription is normally $265, but the co-op has the price down to $129/year, but residents of Alabama & Georgia can have it for FREE any time by contacting their local public television station. I contacted APTV in Birmingham and they happily gave me a login to access the Discovery Education UnitedStreaming videos. This was all through their APTPlus program, which provides access to other things as well, all paid for by the state of Alabama.
She received this reply from APT (Alabama Public Television):
For home-schoolers to enroll in APTPLUS, please instruct the home-schooler to log on to the APTPLUS Web site at the URL listed below and click on “Contact APTPLUS.” Tell them to include their full name, address, phone number, their preferred e-mail address, the name of their Cover Group, the school district in which their children are registered, and the number and age of their children. APT staff will enroll them in the service and return their Username and Password to their e-mail address.
APTPLUSTM is a free, online, video-on-demand, multimedia resource from Alabama Public Television (APT). It provides pre-K through adult education curriculum content, professional development, national and local video libraries, links to Alabama Learning Exchange, Alabama Virtual Library, Annenberg Media, e-Learning for Educators, the Library of Congress and PBS educational Web sites. Two password-protected databases designed specifically to serve the needs of educators, childcare professionals and parents are available upon enrollment. A single sign-on federated search enables enrolled users to search multiple databases simultaneously to access over 100,000 multimedia assets.
Discovery Education streaming (unitedstreaming) is a password-protected database of K-12 core curriculum content and professional development, aligned to Alabama state curriculum standards, that is available to educators and pre-service teachers free through APTPLUS.
PowerMediaPlus is a password-protected database of pre-K-12 core curriculum content and professional development, aligned to Alabama state curriculum standards, Alabama High School Graduation Exam and the Stanford Achievement Test, which is available to educators, pre-service teachers, childcare professionals, and parents free through APTPLUS.
Local Video Libraries offer access to “Discovering Alabama” episodes, the McWane Science Center Library (Einstein and Planet H2O Key Concepts), What’s Up In Factories key concepts, and Alabama Reading Initiative.
Adult Education Video Libraries offer GED Connection, Workplace Essential Skills, TV411, and Going to School to APTPLUS users.
National Video Libraries provide “Frontline,” “National Geographic” and “Newshour” programming.
Additional Resources available to APTPLUS users are Thinkfinity (MarcoPolo) and Encyclopedia Britannica content.
I located this information from the Homeschool Buyers Coop website, where they are having a special promotion on the Discovery Education streaming videos through the end of March:
“Georgia and Alabama are considered “Free States” for the unitedstreaming™ Homeschool subscription. This means that if you are a homeschool parent in any of these states and you want to purchase unitedstreaming™, your local PBS station has already paid for the subscription. Contact your local PBS station for details.”
If you live in Georgia, visit the Georgia Public Broadcasting website or email their Education Program Department to request enrollment.
